Apple Dumplings

This probably won’t be an especially helpful “recipe” as I used what I had on hand, and didn’t measure a thing. I just threw it together, but I know a lot of folks out there do that. So, no measurements, but I can tell you how I did it. I had two nice Gala apples sitting in my refrigerator just begging to become something yummy. I don’t usually use Galas for baking, but I needed to use them up before they got yucky. So I peeled and cored them. I don’t usually have store-bought pie crusts around, but for some reason my husband had bought some and they were in the refrigerator too. I asked my husband how long it had been since he had apple dumplings, and by the level of his excitement I knew it had been a long time. He actually came out to the kitchen and helped me throw these together. I unrolled the pie crusts and then cut them into squares (easier to fold over the apples that way), smeared them with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon, placed the (cored/peeled) apples in the center (one apple to one crust). Filled the centers of the apples with chunks of cut, cold butter pats, raisins, generous sprinkles of cinnamon and some brown sugar. I folded the the crusts over the apples. Moisten the corners of each square with small amount of water, bring 2 opposite corners of dough up over apple and press corners together. Fold in sides of remaining corners, bring corners up over apple and press together. Well, that’s the idea anyway with folding the crusts, as you can see my end result was sloppy in appearance. I greased one bread pan, and put the dumplings in. I prepared a quick brown sugar sauce on the stove (about 2 cups of packed brown sugar and 3/4 cup of water, stir constantly, bring to boil, remove from heat) and poured that in around the dumplings. I brushed the tops with melted butter, sprinkled on a little granulated sugar, a little brown sugar and good shake of cinnamon. Baked at 425 F. for 30-40 minutes. All my husband had to say was: YUMMY! Tasted great, didn’t look so hot in the baking pan, looked very nice plated with ice cream (see below). After we made these, and ate them and enjoyed them, I poked around and looked at apple dumpling recipes and I laughed. I told Don I hadn’t made these “right” at all, and he just looked back at me and said, “They tasted good to me!” So, my guy was pleased. Mission accomplished. I liked mine too. I apologize for minimal photos, by the time I remembered to take photos, I already had them put together and ready to go in the oven.